How Many Eggs Did You Get Today?

[hennotrooster]

I have 2 Sussex one for the most part does not lay the other 4 are BO/RIR mix and they lay every day enough so that I always seem to have 18 eggs in the fridge and that is that we use 4 daily. Love my girls.

 

[bruceha2000]

Question: do certain breeds lay every day/every other day or does it just depend on the chicken? Or is it more that environmental factors that affect egg-laying?

I think the answer is "Yes"

Some breeds are definitely going to lay more eggs in a week than others. Sex Links seem to be good layers, I think they are on my "chicken math" list. My Black Australorps and Easter Eggers are my best layers. Only 1 day has gone by without at least one EE laying since the second started on Dec 12, 2 eggs 14 of those days. The smaller Australorp started WAY earlier than the larger (11/26 vs 1/3). The last time I didn't have an Australorp egg was 12/30. The larger (Zorra) laid her first day, took the next day off and hasn't missed a day since. 18 Australorp eggs in the 11 days since she started laying.

Some breeds are "2 or 3 a week". You get them because they are interesting, not because they are egg machines. The Faverolles were doing OK until they decided they wanted to be broody. Neither has laid in the last 6 days. The Anconas were doing well averaging 1+ a day between them but slacked off 9 days ago. Only 3 eggs since, one today and one yesterday so maybe they are going to start back up

The Cubalayas are a "2-3" and (mine at least) are laying eggs that are half way between Peewee and Small.

Who knows what more natural light will bring though. Some breeds don't seem to let up much with less daylight, others shut right down.

8 today. 6 were there by 9 AM.

Bruce

 

[kenhansen]

I am confused. I have 42 hens, which were giving me about 14 dozien per week. This week I am finding about 6-10 eggs per day, The feed is the same, It has gotten a bit cooler but still in the 70's during the day (Central Florida). The layers are all about 11-12 months old and are RIRs. I do sell the eggs to the local market as I am in a farm community, but in the past two weeks they aren't even earning their keep with regards to feed costs. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanx

 

[PAchickengirl]

Mine seem to lay 3 days in a row, for sure, then a day off. The pattern is if they lay very early in the morning, the next day they'll lay late morning/early afternoon, then the next day after lunch. The day after that, they won't lay. Then the cycle restarts. I think I read its every 26 or 28 hours, and that seems about right. I have 2 each of barred rocks, astrolourpes(sp), golden laced wyondattes, and Easter Eggers. The EE's lay a little less frequently, but not by much. I think it depends on the breed. I also use supplemental light. I was able to figure out their pattern because they each lay different colors of eggs. Four are very similar, but can still kind of tell they're different.

 

[bruceha2000]

I am confused. I have 42 hens, which were giving me about 14 dozien per week. This week I am finding about 6-10 eggs per day, The feed is the same, It has gotten a bit cooler but still in the 70's during the day (Central Florida). The layers are all about 11-12 months old and are RIRs. I do sell the eggs to the local market as I am in a farm community, but in the past two weeks they aren't even earning their keep with regards to feed costs. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanx

Everyone happy, no disease (lice, worms, etc)
Anyone moulting?
Latches on the pens not mysteriously left open?

How long have they been doing the 14 dozen/week? Maybe they just hit a down cycle?

Bruce

 

[Gifa]

The warm weather here in the south is helping my hens FINALLY start laying 1-2 eggs every day (out of 4 hens so looks like only 3 are laying every other day. But it's pretty good for what they were doing!)
Question: do certain breeds lay every day/every other day or does it just depend on the chicken? Or is it more that environmental factors that affect egg-laying?

I am confused. I have 42 hens, which were giving me about 14 dozien per week. This week I am finding about 6-10 eggs per day, The feed is the same, It has gotten a bit cooler but still in the 70's during the day (Central Florida). The layers are all about 11-12 months old and are RIRs. I do sell the eggs to the local market as I am in a farm community, but in the past two weeks they aren't even earning their keep with regards to feed costs. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanx

The best answer is that each chicken will have it's own cycle... most of which fall between 26 and 30 hour cycles. My best layers are laying every 27 hours or so. My worst layers, an EE and my Leghorn, are laying about every 30 hours or so, probably because of being a little stressed by the cold, we've been averaging highs in the 30's since Thanksgiving.

What this means is... each chicken will lay its egg slightly later in the day than it laid the day before. When their cycle on a day falls past sunset, they will not have laid that day, and will hold it until the next morning, usually first thing. The shorter the days, the more often in a week this will occur, and thus, the fewer eggs a week you will get.

For example... out of 7 hens, only 5 of mine are laying, and today, I got 5 eggs. But I can tell from when they laid today that I will only get 2 tomorrow.

I track my bird's cycles in a spreadsheet...(because everyone needs a hobby =P)

The time of day they lay is in continental(hour) decimal (minute) format, so, like 11=11:00 am and 14.25 = 2:15pm and so forth. I do it this way so the graph charts it correctly... but it's easy enough especially since quarter hour increments easily translate, to decimal, and there is no reason for higher resolution than that. So right now, sun rise is at about 7:30 and sun set is at about 5:15... in the last week, the very earliest I have gotten eggs is around 7:45 in the morning, the very latest I have gotten eggs is 4:45... Which means on average, most of them can really only lay 2 or 3 days in a row before they are forced to hold it overnight by the sun's set time.

Anyway... the last few days in my chart look something like this:

Date​

Zoe​

Inara​

Kaylee​

Yolanda​

Bridget
1/11/2013​

0​

0​

13.5​

8​

8
1/12/2013​

9​

8​

0​

11​

11
1/13/2013​

15.5​

11.5​

8.25​

15.25​

14
​

So, I can make a prediction about tomorrow and the following fairly reliably.

Date​

Zoe​

Inara​

Kaylee​

Yolanda​

Bridget
1/11/2013​

0​

0​

13.5​

8​

8
1/12/2013​

9​

8​

0​

11​

11
1/13/2013​

15.5​

11.5​

8.25​

15.25​

14
1/14/2013​

0​

14-15ish​

12-13ish​

0​

0
1/15/2013​

8-9​

0​

0​

8-9​

8-9​

So, I already know that I will only get 2 eggs tomorrow... a brown one and a green one... and they will both be laid after noon... Any deviations from these predictions that are not related to the length of the day are a signal to me to monitor a particular bird for possible health issues.

Now, when the sun is rising around 6:00am and setting around 9:30pm during the summer, they'll be able to lay more eggs in a row, which means fewer days off, which means more eggs to collect per day from your entire flock.

This is why adding artificial light in the coop increases productivity... because it artificially lengthens their day.

 

[shadow rabbit10]

2/4

 

[JimWWhite]

The warm weather here in the south is helping my hens FINALLY start laying 1-2 eggs every day (out of 4 hens so looks like only 3 are laying every other day. But it's pretty good for what they were doing!)
Question: do certain breeds lay every day/every other day or does it just depend on the chicken? Or is it more that environmental factors that affect egg-laying?

I've had both the Golden Comets (Red Sex Links) and Black Sex Links and it's my opinion they are absolutely the best layers you can get. We had our GC's for more than 3 years and from the time they started laying at 24 to 25 weeks. They just got better and closer to 100% daily as they matured. There were only a few days that I got 30 eggs from my 30 hens but most times I did get from 24 to 28 eggs a day, even in the winter (we're in NC). Towards the end they started to become spent but we were still getting 6 to 8 eggs a day from 22 hens. These probably came from the youngest group of 12 hens we got at that time. Last spring a friend took the GC's and we replaced them in early September with 24 BSL's. They started laying right at 26 weeks which was right after Thanksgiving. We're up to 20 a day right now. Most days for the past 2 weeks we've been getting 18 to 20 a day. By Spring I'm betting we get close to 100% from these Gals. As I said, in my opinion both the GC's and BSL's are the best you can get if you want eggs. If you want pretty chickens or unusual chickens like Polish or some of the ornamental breeds you'll not get anywhere near that kind of production from them. Even the Rhode Island Reds, Dominiques, Orphingtons, etc. which are good layers can't match them for egg production. Both breeds have given us extra large to jumbo brown eggs. And we don't do anything to 'push' them. They get standard all natural feed and scratch. We do have a light in the coop at night but that's just so they'll go inside at dark. I turn it off about an hour after they go in for the night.

Hope this helps...

 

[Arkansas81]

Well it wasn't as bad as I thought out there today. We've been slammed for weeks with raining non stop weather so went out today to check on everyone, all was good. Yesterday was the worse rain storm we had yet this year, I was really worried! They didn't seem any worse for wear just hanging out. Got 10 eggs today, couldn't collect yesterday so all is good. They were so happy to get out for awhile today. They are doing so good in this crappy weather I'm sooooo ready for nicer weather...I'm exhausted with my extra chicken chores

 

[bruceha2000]

I track my bird's cycles in a spreadsheet...(because everyone needs a hobby =P)

Me too, except that other than weekends, I have no idea when they lay. 15 minute intervals?? Do you have the girls write on a paper copy of the spreadsheet Gifa or do you live in the coop with them? Or maybe they live in the house with you!

I got a scale this week so besides noting who laid, I can also note how big the egg was. It was a bit of an eye opener that scale. I had been guessing a full size larger than they actually weigh based initially on comparison to store Large eggs I still had. Today's total of 8 barely squeaked Medium on average. The Australorps and EEs compensated for the Cubalayas's two eggs which don't even approach Small. At least they are bigger than Peewee now. They were REALLY small quite a while. But they are small birds. I think even a Medium would probably do them in. The smallest Medium would be a gram over 25% heavier then their 40 g eggs.

Given both my Australorps and both my EEs laid before 9/9:15 yesterday and today, I think they must be on a shorter cycle than yours or they laid early yesterday (they do have a small amount of artificial light starting at 4:30 AM) and late today. Which is possible since all 6 of the eggs laid before I let them out (especially the Cubalaya egg that a Faverolles was sitting on) were warm and one of the Australorps hopped out of the nest when I got to the coop. Must have laid just in time to not miss morning treats!

Bruce